Exclusive: New tokenized stock venue eyes 2027 Solana launch

Overview

Formation Securities Co-Founder and President Christopher Montagano joins Gareth Jenkinson on The Starting Block to announce the company's SEC filing to operate the first tokenized securities venue on Solana, targeting an early 2027 launch with real tokenized stock that will carry full voting and dividend rights. The firm plans to operate under the SEC's innovation exemption.

Episode 52 of The Starting Block, hosted by The Block's Gareth Jenkinson, was broadcasted live with Formation Securities Co-Founder and President Christopher Montagano.

Key topics
• Formation Securities files SEC notice to launch first Solana-based tokenized securities venue.
• Platform targets early January 2027 go-live under SEC's innovation exemption.
• Tokens carry full voting and dividend rights, unlike synthetic alternatives.
• Launch partners include Exodus, Galaxy Digital, Anchorage, Fireblocks and Superstate.
• Binance hack: over $6B drained, $2.85B still frozen, FBI blames North Korea's Trader Traitor.

Outline

- Introduction
- The Block Briefing
- The Hot Seat with Formation Securities
- Why Solana?
- Project Open & Partners
- Midterms & Regulatory Outlook

Summary

Christopher Montagano announced that Formation Securities filed a public notice with the SEC's Division of Trading and Markets earlier that morning under the agency's so-called innovation exemption, introduced in September 2026. The exemption starts a 30-day clock during which the SEC can engage with the filer, ask questions and request material amendments; Formation is looking to go live in early January 2027. Unlike tokenized securities products from platforms such as Robinhood Chain, Montagano explained that Formation's offering involves actual tokenized stock — not a derivative or synthetic — carrying the same dividend rights, voting rights and other shareholder entitlements as the underlying security, traded on-chain via an automated market maker on a public permissionless blockchain.

Montagano said Formation's choice of Solana was rooted in his own history: he was an early operator at Orca, one of the first AMMs built on Solana, and regards the chain as superior for high-frequency trading on grounds of speed, cost and reliability. He noted that NYSE parent ICE was the first party to file for a tokenized securities venue — through the OKXICE joint venture — and acknowledged a competitive element, while arguing Formation's half-decade of AMM experience gives it an advantage. At launch the venue will carry tokenized shares of Exodus, Galaxy Digital and Forward Industries, with tokenization supplied by Superstate and Securitize, custody via Anchorage, Fireblocks and BitGo, and distribution through Alpaca Markets, Coinlist, GDO/JTX, Solflare and Squads. Montagano also highlighted Solana's Token 2022 standard, which allows issuers to impose transfer requirements and, critically, to freeze or cancel tokens in the event of a security incident — a feature he contrasted directly with the Binance hack discussed earlier in the show.

Asked whether the midterm elections could unsettle the innovation exemption, Montagano said he views tokenization as inevitable and does not consider innovation itself a partisan issue, noting that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle show genuine curiosity when they engage with the technology. He added that the exemption carries a five-year clock, designed to give innovators sufficient runway to demonstrate efficiency gains relative to traditional securities venues such as NASDAQ and NYSE.

About the guest
Christopher Montagano is the Co-Founder and President of Formation Securities, a company born from the merger of Solana decentralized exchange Orca and lending protocol Loopscale, that is building tokenized securities infrastructure for U.S. capital markets. He joined Orca in 2022 as its chief legal officer after earlier stints at the SEC and Sidley Law.